Across the Veil
by AscendedWarrior
Summary: A Ranma 12 Forgotten realms Crossover, during the fight with Herb of the Musk, Ranma loses. When she regains conciousness on top of a mountian the she does not recognize... Update June 2007: I'm doing a minor rewrite, I'll post it when I'm finished...
1. Chapter 1: Strange Locations

**Across the Veil**

By Ascended Warrior

AN: I know that Of Crimson Tears is not completed yet but I'm having trouble continuing it, I find that I lost interest in writing it at least for now I will continue it at a later date.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or settings herein; Forgotten realms and Ranma ½ are the property of their respective owner's and not mine.

Warning: I am a rather sporatic writter and as such there will be no predicting when I will update this fic, that being said I will sometimes upadate it more than once a week, and I also plan on finishing this particular one. So please bear with me while I write this fic, I will also ignore flames, only constructive critism will be listened to. I also do not have any prereaders for this story so it is quite rough... anyone that wants the position please volinteer.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

* * *

Prologue: 

'Damn him', Ranma thought darkly as she gazed upon the arogant dragon prince. The smoldering murder in her eyes was enough to send lesser mortals running for the bathroom, but all it appeared to do was amuse the bastard.

Her gaze shifted to the side for a moment taking in the fierce battle between the lost boy and one of Herb's retainers, Lime. The Ryouga appeared to be winning if only slightly, he looked desperate to deliver the Open water kettle to her so she or rather he could win the battle.

"I will beat you," the words spoken in a low hiss by the injured Ranma. The sound did not even reach five feet in front of her as the wind picked up for her latest revision of the Hiryu Shoten Ha. As she got closer to the completion of the spiral Ranma had to suppress a smile; the dragon prince was falling into her trap. Although he had a counter to the standard version of the Hiryu Shoten Ha he would not be able to detect the revision until it was too late.

The only problem with this plan was that it required her to at least finish the spiral, which from the look of it would not happen, she had the footing correct but the she was unable to dodge the final blow that the dragon prince dealt to her. The pain exploded across her jaw from the blow, the world spun for a few seconds before she spun and hit the ground hard. Herb's retreating form was the last thing to register in her conscious mind.

End Prologue

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Chapter1: Strange Locations and Large Visitors 

Looking around the crater-laden mountaintop the figure gritted its teeth in frustration. The pointed ears, silted eyes and pink white hair easily identified him as Herb prince of the Musk dynasty. Herb and his two retainers Lime and Mint were searching the mountaintop for the one of the other participant's in the battle royal that had happened there.

The figure that the trio were looking for was a familiar pig-tailed matial artist, flaming red hair in a tight bind, red Chinese shirt with black pants and short for her age. The reason they were looking for the pig-tailed girl was two fold, one they wanted to check on her health, the other reason was of importance to the dragon prince himself. You see the musk have a history of taking strong animals and dunking them in the spring of drowned girl, and then using an artifact called the locking ladle to lock their curse. This in itself was cruel and unusual punishment for said animals. No what was really distressing is what they did afterward, which was the real problem, you see the Musk dynasty used these animals locked in human female form to breed.

Going into this though one must remember that it is Musk history, and if the current prince sometimes princess of the Musk Herb had anything to say about it, it would stay that way. For you see although when he first went to the Accursed springs of Jusenkyo his thoughts ran along a similar line to the ancient Musk, but after some soul searching (and getting locked as a female for a good two months) he changed his views. Now he no longer was going to turn an animal into his bride, he was going to look for a strong female to be his bride.

This revelation of course excluded 'any' Amazon women. Although strong, they treated their men almost as bad as the Musk treated their women. So when he or rather 'she' at the time traveled to Japan in search of the one artifact of the Musk that could unlock his curse, he was on the outlook for a strong women to be his bride. When the two fool retainers brought some women they heisted off the street to his meeting with the Amazon matriarch he felt like blasting them for their stupidity.

Then that arrogant punk entered and fought him, he even managed to get a hit in, which consequently revealed his, or rather 'her' female status at the time. For those that encounter dragons it is good advice to never piss them off, while Herb was a 'dragon' prince (princess at the time) the blood in his veins was so diluted that he did not have near the temper of his greater cousins. That is not say that he didn't have a temper however, which is why he beat the snot out of the punk. When the punk was doused with water, and changed gender Herb graciously inflicted him with the same condition that he had possessed, a locking of the curse.

Later that night when he and his retainer's were camped just outside of Tokyo the Amazon matriarch approached their camp. After 'dealing' with his companions. Herb had a talk with her, what was revealed in the talk with the matriarch was that the person he locked was named Ranma and was her current 'son-in-law'. She instructed Herb on a plot that she had recently hatched to snare the poor boy and bring him in line. All that this plot required was for him to get the open water kettle unlock his curse, and return to Tokyo while the boy searched the mountains for him and his retainers.

When Ranma returned distraught and still female, the matriarch would offer to unlock his curse 'if' he returned to China with the amazons. Although the plan had merit and could possibly work, Herb did not like the amazons, they may have been at peace but their was too much bad blood for him to get involved with their plots, besides he heard what they did to break their husbands and he wouldn't wish that on any man.

So with the Amazon plot in mind he planned on screwing over the old bat, him and his retainer's would still get the open water kettle, but they were not going to bring it back to the amazons. Herb planned on again defeating this 'Ranma' and then if he fought well enough, unlock his curse to spite the ghoul. If the cursed boy had not improved enough to give a decent challenge then he would leave him female and return to China himself.

They say that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and with Ranma this is doubly so. The pig-tailed martial artist and a couple of her friends had caught up with them at a bathhouse near the mountain that continued the kettle, and the following battle had been entertaining if nothing else. Just for that he planned on unlocking the boy's curse, but what surprise him more is that the trio caught up to them again a few days latter. This Ranma had to pick better allies, the two boys that came along with her betrayed her turst at the first opportunity, they tried to use the locking ladle to cure themselves. The two morons didn't even try to use hot water first, going to the near by river the two doused themselves in the water, effectively locking their curses.

The next day when they located the open water kettle and he unlocked his curse, in the ensuing battle Ranma had told her two friends's to get the kettle and unlock them, an act that completely baffled him. The two had betrayed her trust but she was still willing to unlock their curses first, it is not often you find such innocence in an individual. What surprised him more was that she almost fought him to a stand still. Even now he could feel how much harder her hits were, how much better she fought the first time around.

This and the entertaining fight from before more than ample reason to unlock her cure, but sadly it was not to be. When her friend who was being surprisingly loyal at the time, retrieved the kettle and was bringing it to her. He ended up destroying it in a fit of rage when Lime impeded him, crushing the kettle that he held in his grasp when he clenched his fist. The artifact had exploded violently, injuring Lime and almost killing the boy, he would live but would never have the same range of motion with his arms again. Of course at the time he was still in battle with the pig-tailed girl, only after he had finally defeated her did he notice what happened.

He almost had his retainers execute the boy on the spot but held himself back, knowing that it was not completely his fault and his injuries from this battle would be enough punishment for now. What really pissed him off though was the Amazon boy that had followed the other two was making off with the locking ladle, this he could not allow. So Herb with his retainer's Lime and Mint chased the boy across the mountain and into the forest.

It took them several hours to retrieve the ladle from the boy but they had done so. His only consolidation when the duck got away was that he might have accidentally locked himself in his cursed form when he fell in the river. After having Mint retrieve the ladle from the river he and his two companions returned to the mountain to retrieve the bandana clad boy and the pig-tailed girl. After chasing the Amazon boy for a while and the subsequent walk back, Herb found himself changing his pervious plans, now that girl's curse was locked now, possibly forever. The fact was this Ranma was rather atractive, and had a warrior's spirit also contributed.

So he began to hatch a new plan for his stay in Japan, being of Musk heritage he was not averse to taking a cursed individual as a wife. With this in mind he began to plan what to do from here, he could just tell the girl outright, but that would not go over well. He had to be subtle about this, maybe becoming her friend before trying for something more serious, and because of his curse he could be a female companion if he so wished. Although the latter did not appeal to him in the slightest he would be willing to do so on a few occasions.

The only other problem that they would have if they stayed in the Tokyo was his two retainers, each although good fighters, were complete and utter perverts. So he had to figure a way to 'desensitize' them, hopefully stopping their behavior permanently. If he could not find a way, or heaven forbid they became worse he would have to take drastic methods i.e. beating the living hell out of both of them. But before he could even implement one of these plans he and his companions would have to return to Tokyo with the others in tow.

Sighing as they finally reached the battle sight Herb ordered the moronic duo to take care of the Hibiki boy. Making his way over to his hopefully future bride, admiring her as he approached. Bending down preparing to take her with him in a fireman's carry, he suddenly jerked as his danger sense went full out. The entire area around him screamed of danger, stepping back from the unconscious girl he looked around frantically for what was threatening him. The last thing he saw before his world went white was the surprised looks on the faces of both Lime and Mint.

0000

Ranma slowly regained consciousness, her entire body aching as if she had been in a vicious fight. 'Oh yeah, never mind I was in one,' she thought, 'oh well can't do anything about it now'. As she opened her eyes she noticed that she was not on the potter marked mountaintop she had gone to sleep on, this in itself was quite worry some.

After she had regained her footing she had a chance to look around the area and a deep feeling of dread seem to seep into her stomach, the mountains, were not the ones she had been knocked out on, they did not even look like any of the mountains she had visited in Japan. During the training trip she had visited many mountain ranges all over Asia and the island of Japan but none of them looked like these, she had to be somewhere in north America or Europe if not, well that was best left for thinking of later.

The unfamiliarity of the mountains around her while very concerning was not what caught her attention. There were eight bodies behind her, each charred beyond recognition, and the fact that the bodies were burnt was not what was of concern however. The fact that each corpse stood more than 16ft tall was. "What the hell...?" Whispered a wide-eyed Ranma. The entire mountaintop behind her had been scorched, there were several large piles of burnt wood obviously used to build some sort of siege engine, but Ranma could not stop staring at the bodies.

For a few minutes Ranma stood there gawking at the massive corpses and the scene of destruction. She would have continued to do so if the sound of voices coming up the path hadn't altered her to the approach of more the those... creature's. Knowing that they would immediately assume that she was responsible in some way for what had happened here, Ranma decided that the best course of action should be to hide and then slowly sneak away from the 'giants'.

Quickly surveying the area, she noticed the mountain went a little higher with slight rocky outcroppings all along the area. Moving as quickly a possible from her current position she hid behind the rocks, flattening herself against the ground. Hopefully this would allow her to sneak off while the giants weren't looking.

Peeking her head off to the side of the small hiding spot she was currently in she finally saw the giants cresting the hill, there were several of the critter's speaking in a strange tongue she could barley hear less understand. Each stood about 24ft tall, clad in what appeared to be European chain mail, the most striking feature besides their height was the strange blue tint of their skin. The four were facing each other conversing, apparently about what had happened on the mountain peak.

They talked for a couple more seconds before two walked away from the area back down the trail, the other two started looking over the area carefully seeing if they could find any hidden ambush. Cursing her curiosity Ranma slowly using all the stealth skills she learned from her father to sneak away from the giants.

0000

Fifteen Minutes Later

'I have to admit' Ranma thought to herself. 'Pop may be a lazy good for nothin' panda, but he's got some good stealth techniques, if I only didn't know how they were developed.' Ranma stopped that line of thought before it could continue. Thinking of her current state and the events leading up to it, would leed to a deep depression. Shaking her head to clear it of its current line of thought she continued on.

It had taken her fifteen minutes to reach the heavier area of cover, unnoticed by the giants who continued on doing their business. Getting up from the prone position she had crawled in for the past while she looked over the area she was in currently, the many rocky out-cropping were of no concern, but she needed a better view of where she was and where to go. Taking several more minutes to make sure that she was at a respectful distance and one she would consider safe Ranma stood up to get a better look at the area she was in.

All around the area she was standing in there were mountains of assorted height, along with deep gullies crossing though all of them. Right across from the current edifice she was standing on was a larger mountain that would be perfect to get a better view of the surrounding area. Her destination set Ranma proceeded towards it. She estimated that it would take her a good couple of hours to reach the peak of the mountain, being a high trained martial artist had it's advantages after all, 'normal' people would have to scale back down any gullies or set up some sort of rope bridge, all she had to do was jump the gap and continue on.

0000

a while latter...

It had taken Ranma far longer to reach the peak of the mountain than she suspected it would, for the first part of her journey it was clear sailing, but it was not to be. The second half of the travel to the mountain is when things began to slow down. 

During one of her jumps across the yawning gaps below, she had almost landed on a group of scraggly humans. The assessment that they were human was ify, hell most of them would have sent a mother into a screaming fit if she gave birth to such monstrosities, well they were not 'that' bad, but they were still ugly as sin. She had almost landed on a group of them when she was able to right herself, calling out to the 'humans' seemed like a good idea at the time, but the greeting she had planned died in her mouth as she got a good look at them.

The creature's had sat there stunned for a few moments, combined with Ranma's staring, both parties were too stunned to do anything about the other. It was surprisingly the 'humans' that gained their sense's first. While one might wonder why Ranma would be stunned by a group of orc's they fail to take into account that no-one he/she had ever faced was quite so... ugly so he/she could be excused for sitting in stunned awe.

The battle was surprisingly short (or not so surprisingly, it depending on your opinion). The 'humans' had charged intent on some sort of nefarious deed; weather to kill the interloper ('umie as they would say) or to have some 'fun' was not sure. But whatever their plot was it quickly became a moot point. Although stunned by their looks Ranma had been in many battles before, and knew when one was about to begin. So without fanfare, she dealt with the onrushing horde, sadly even though what they had planned was the lowest and sickest things that could be done to a human being she left all of them alive.

After the battle she having regained some of the body heat she had lost crawling on the cool mountain rock hiding from the giants. However it soon became apparent that she would need more drastic measure's to keep warm soon, her Ki while keeping her comfortable currently was not limitless, and she could not use it while sleep so she needed shelter. Hoping that she could spot some place to rest from the mountaintop she pressed on.

It became apparent that the single group of 'humans' was not the only ones on the mountain, there were several parties each seemingly either dithering around or going to some specific location. The one thing the 'humans' were lacking more than looks appeared was intelligence, while not complete idiots, they used very little common sense and were quite vocal on their opinions of each other. In that way was it easy to sneak past the groups of 'humans'.

Because of the many 'humans' mulling about it had taken her a good chunk of the day to reach the mountain and ascended it. The sneaking around stopped her from using her superior jumping skills and speed to reach the mountain quickly so in their stead she had to climb and zip from cover to cover. But after half a day she had finally made it to the top of the mountain. Dusting herself off as she stood on the peak she finally got a good look around the area.

It was obviously a large mountain range, for as far as the eye could see there were mountains, only just south of her did they beginning to break up. Now that she had taken in the surrounding area she could look for any details that could lead to shelter for the night. South of her location there looked be some sort of large gathering of people, maybe the same ugly one's as before but she couldn't be sure. There was obviously a few of the 'giants' mixed among them from the look of the forms towering over their lesser brethren. Deciding that she did not want to spend a night even a few hundred feet near those 'men' she looked for another suitable location.

Sighing as she found no such local she decided to head east, along the spine of the mountains hoping to find some sort of crevice or shelter before the night set in.

0000

Consciousness slowly returned to prince currently princess of the Musk. The pounding inside of her head was the first real sign that she was truly fully conscious, that and the slight pain from being dropped from some unknown height. Herb waited several minutes to wait for the pounding in her head to recede before opening her eyes and standing erect. Shaking the final cobwebs from her mind and vision she surveyed her predicament.

She was obviously in some sort of forest where, she had absolutely no clue. The tree's all around her were not of a variety found on Japan, hell not on the whole Asian continent, thinking for a minute she realized that the white flash must have moved her somehow to some location that was located in neither Japan or China. Sighing Herb picked a random direction to walk in, hoping against hope that it would lead to some sort of civilization.

After walking for a few minutes to no avail she made sure to look over the surrounding, so as not to start walking in circles. It took her only a couple of minutes looking around to spot a campfire off in the distance, deciding that whom ever had set the fire would be better company than the empty woods she headed in that direction.

0000

Gulplac was a simple man of wealth; he was good and honest with a little too much facial hair and a scraggly black mop of hair on his head that most women would die for. Sure not one had even looked in his direction but he knew that they liked him; they were only playing hard to get. Just because he had relieved some of the richer folk of there items of value (and the not so rich but that's another story entirely) did not mean he was a thief, oh just because most of his money came from some establishment that call a 'bank' did not make him nitrous. Why would anyone hoard his or her belongings in one place like some dragon? No whoever decided that a 'bank' was a good idea obviously had a few screws loose.

It was for this reason that the good and kind person (he only killed five men in cold blood after all) decided that silverymoon could do without his presence (he had a 10,000 gold piece reward on his head). So here he was enjoying a nice relaxing vacation in a forest only a couple hundred miles away from home (they'd never find him here).

It had only taken him a few minutes to get a good fire going, he knew that there was a few orc's in the area but he was confident that he could handle them (boots of striding and springing do wonders for one's speed), plus the fire would keep any unwanted animals away from his camp.

The first thing he decided to do was cook some of the meat he bought (read: stole) from a traveling merchant. Rolling up a convenient log and getting a good strong stick he began to slowly cook the raw meat over the fire. He had been only doing so for a few minutes when a vision of loveliness came from out of the woods, her pink coloured hair and slitted eyes making her all the more beautiful in his eyes. Standing the meat forgotten in the flames he approached her ready to take her into his arms, and make sweet passionate love to her.

To be Continued...

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AN: Enjoy the New chapter segragation, and mispelling of the Authors notes! I have been doing some minor revision of each chapter in chronological order so there will be some minor changes to each one...  



	2. Chapter 2: Wrath of the Dragon

Chapter 2: Wrath of the Dragon Princess

Herb sighed as she continued to walk, it was taking her a long time to reach the fire, it had only been a few minutes but time seemed to drag for a long time when you were trying not to draw attention to yourself in a forest. Seeing the flickering light from the campfire only a few feet in front of her she continued on, breaking through the cover of the forest one step at a time, no thought to the danger that could be ahead. Although this would be foolish for most people, when one is a dragon prince of an obscure but powerful tribe there is very little that can threaten you directly.

When she entered the clearing Herb stood there in shock, the person in front of her was ugly, the type of ugly that would send your own mother running for the nearest bathroom, maybe that is a bit much but he was quite... fugly. The man in front of her had a pot marked face, dingy black hair (unless it was only that colour from not being washed in god knows how long) and quite the ugly beard to complement the face. The clothing was also odd, some sort of leather armour not seen for at least a couple of centuries in Europe, shaking her head in slight disbelief, Herb had to hold back the bile in her thought as she caught the 'musk' of the man standing before her.

Deciding that even if the man in front of her, was... well of the lowest sort Herb decided to continue into the camp. This thought was brought to an abrupt halt as the man stood and began to walk toward her, his eye's showing the same twinkle as the two buffoons that traveled with her when they wanted to touch her breasts, but somehow seemed far less innocent, sending shivers of disgust down her spine.

Eye's hardening Herb started to glare dagger's at the man in front of her, deciding to be polite for the moment she spoke to him. "Could you tell me where the nearest settlement is?" she said in a cold tone.

The only reply that the man offered was a slightly lecherous grin and ugly looking smile. The man continued to approach obviously lost in some sort of fantasy where she was a willing participant. Deciding to wait until he actually tried to violate her personal space before she dealt with him.

She didn't have to wait long; he made a grab for her when he was less than five feet away, and using an overly large amount of force she broke his arm in two places, and kneed him in the groin. Deciding that he was not worth the trouble of keeping around Herb tossed the ugly bastard into the forest.

Dusting off her hands Herb looked around the area, deciding on what she was going to do now.

The guy that attacked her would not be up for a few hours so Herb decided to look over his things; hopefully there would be something of use within them. First going over to the fire she looked at the piece of charred meat that was on the burnt stick, getting nothing from that avenue, she continued her search.

Next she checked his traveling pack, which surprisingly did not smell nearly as bad as he did. Inside she found several useful things but nothing that she would need to take. Fishing around in the pack some more revealed several dozen gold and silver coins, each had to be worth a good chunk of change, deciding that payment was required for his earlier acts she relieved him of his ill gotten gains. Pocketing a good chunk of the gold Herb took one last look at the area for anything of use, finding nothing she continued on, hopefully to find some sign of civilization.

Several hours passed by as Herb wandered through the forest, finally breaking the cover of the woods could her a river off in the distance, just within sight range. Shrugging her shoulder she decided to follow the river hopefully it would lead to some sort of settlement, the only question was what direction to take? Thinking it over for a few minutes she decided that right was the more prudent course and proceeded to walk in that direction.

It was dusk by the time she found even a semblance of shelter, a fisherman's hut abandoned recently by the looks of it, sighing she decided that for at least tonight this would have too do. Now if only their was a place to heat up some hot water...

0000

Ranma sighed for the umpteenth time this hour it had taken her longer to reach the next mountain than it had ever before, there was even more of those damn creature, the things seemed to be all over the mountains, in this area. Hoping that they would lessen was not an option, and taking them all on was not either. Even at her level she did not even have close to the endurance that would be needed to take them all out.

Currently she was resting on a cliff face above a fifty-foot drop, catching her breath for the next leg of her search. She knew that there was no way that she was going to reach any type of town in time for the sun to set, so currently she was searching for either a cabin or a small crevice to spend the night in. So far her entire search had seemed fruitless, finding no places suitable for the night. She just hoped that she would find one by sunset.

When Dawn finally broke over the horizon two figures awoke for the day, one in a small cold mountain crevice, and the other in a small fisherman's shack.

Seeing the light peeking in from the entrance to her small shelter Ranma cursed all that was holy, and unholy about her current predicament. The rest that she had gotten during the night was abysmal to say the least, the crevice stopped the wind from getting in sure but it did not stop the mountain air from being cold. So to keep herself warm during the night Ranma had to concentrate on keeping her Ki running through her body, which in effect only left her half rested as if she had only gotten a couple hours of sleep.

Cursing who or whatever got her into her current predicament Ranma readied herself for the day. Shifting out side of the rocky crevice she first looked around the area, finding no more of the men she encountered last night she went to a platue that she had found earlier, hopefully still clear of the damn bastards.

Finding the area clear, she began her morning stretches, and then a basic set of kata to loosen up her limbs for the travel today. The whole while thinking on her current predicament. Starting with a slow dance like set, she slowly built up her speed all the while thinking on what happened recently. 'There's gotta be some other way to unlock my curse' she thought as she increased the speed of her punches. 'I can't stay this way forever, and even if I could there is no way in hell I'm marrying that bastard' an image of Soun crying waterfalls came to mind making her falter in her work out. 'I rather be ronin than marry HIM' the speed of her kicks increased, her entire form seemingly radiating anger.

Stopping to catch her breath Ranma then continued to think,' now what am I going to do? I have no clue where I am and there is no landmarks 'round here' startin up a slower basic form of the Matsubeto Kakuto Saotome Ryu (Saotome Anything goes Martial Arts). Thoughts drifting to her earlier battle with Herb 'the bastard's good I'll give 'em that' again beginning the graceful pattern of dodge, attack and parry. 'He has far too much power, the next fight I have with him I'm going to have to use that against him more fully' somersaulting backwards and landing in a guard position she continued to think. 'Next time I face him I gotta win, I may have lost the first three times but there is nothin that will stop me from beating him the fourth.'

Switching to an offensive position she began a new attack pattern, 'the only question is how...' Ranma stopped mid punch as an odd thought hit her, 'wait a second... I don't recognize these mountains, how the hell am I gonna find Herb if I don't know where I am.' Her arms went slack at her side as another thought hit her, 'those... those men, I don't think they were human... they didn't look right, and giants I don't think I'm in Japan anymore, maybe not even earth?' As those thoughts hit her Ranma began to glow a sickly green colour 'If I'm no longer on earth... were the hell am I now?'

0000

In a hospital bed on anther plane a black haired boy wearing a yellow and black bandanna sneezed, unconsciously thinking that someone stole his lines.

0000

Standing on the flat of the mountain Ranma's thoughts again started to become more depressed 'I'm stuck as a girl' the sickly green aura encompassing her body grew slightly bigger, 'I've lost three consecutive fights in a row against some arrogant prince from china.' Her aura continued to grow, making her look like she was burning in green flames. 'To top it off if I return home without unlocking my curse I have to marry some old man that has no emotional control' the dust and rocks around her began to move away as her aura continued to grow larger and darker. 'Even if I do unlock my curse and get home I'll still be engaged to three girls, one that obviously doesn't like me, one that wants me to run some stupid restaurant all my life and one that wants me for breeding stalk!'

The aura that surrounded Ranma now an extremely dark green almost black, the light in the area appeared to be absorbed within it "MY LIFE SUCKS!" Ranma yelled unnoticed tears streaming down her face. "PERFECT SHI SHI HOKODAN!" The nearly pitch black ball of Ki soared into the air, coming crashing down around the uncaring unseeing eyes of Ranma, the ground around her fussed into glass pieces of the mountain rained down for quite a few miles all around all of this unnoticed by Ranma as she fell to the ground asleep from exhaustion, drained of Ki silent sobs racked her sleeping frame.

0000

Zelgrac one tooth and his patrol had been sent out to find the 'flame haired demo-ness' that had taken out one of there patrols the day before, obviously Gracnor the slob that he was would make something up fantastic for sleeping on the job, there was no way in the nine hells that one unarmed person could take down a group of armed orc's. So they send Zelgrac and his elite band to track her down, he snorted at this. The only reason they were considered 'elite' was because they used there heads in battle, where his brethren would charge blindly forward him and his boys would sneak around.

He had collected all the intelligent orc's around him into his small elite unit, well intelligent for orc's anyway, not a single one was of high intellect but for orc's average intelligence was being able to speak badly so each of his band was almost a genius by orc standards. But this also led them to be used most often for this type of mission, finding the drunken fantasies of his stupid kin. It sucked being one of the weaker orc's.

Finding a small red headed human with slight elfin features was quite a surprise, seeing her do some sort of dance was even more surprising. Signaling his band to be quite they approached her, when they were about fifty feet away and hadn't looked behind her a smile grew on his face, they could have some fun with this one. Signaling for the smallest of their band to sneak up and capture the human he smiled lecherously.

When the small orc was almost within striking distance a green fire seemed to spread across the girl's entire body. Staring for a couple of seconds he was about to give the order to retreat from the demon (the bastard had to be right she obviously wasn't a wizard) he felt his hand grow heavy and a lump of some strange emotion grow in his stomach, that's when he noticed to his horror that he seemed transfixed to watching the green fire grow darker and expand around the girls petite frame. When the fire started pushing him and his companions back away from the girl is when he really started to worry. He heard a cry from the girl in some strange tongue as the greenish black fire shot into the sky.

Finally breaking from whatever spell they were under the entire group began to retreat, taking one last look at the enchantress that had held them fast he began to run, all was for not however because he barley had taken two steps when the greenish black ball of fire landed he felt a sharp pain then knew nothing more.

0000

All around the mountain range people playing important parts in the current events looked to the huge emission of power. One orc enhanced with the power of a god was distracted from his planned invasion of mithral hall, a couple of elves one male one female, drow and moon respectively stopped there morning conversation and stared at the new black star in the mountains before it fell. A beautiful frost giantess at the same meeting as the empowered orc seemed to go into a trance. Many of the orc's around the area seemed had a small shiver go down their collective spines, as if something had already planned their deaths. Finally under a small-unnamed mountain ancient and evil stirred, sensing a great power near by.

0000

In a small fishing shack on an unknown river near the mountains prince Herb of the musk awoke, seeing the sun beginning to rise in the sky she exited the shack, deciding to continue as she had yesterday Herb continued to follow the river, that is until she felt a familiar Ki signature, one of her rival and hopefully future spouse. Stopping in her tracks she began to head in its direction, hopping to get some hot water on the way.

0000

Herb was not in a good mood, it had taken him far longer to reach the location of the blast than he would of thought possible, oh sure it was some fifty miles away but that should have only taken him two maybe three hours to reach, but he had wanted hot water on the way which he had taken from some brutes. Originally he had planned on asking the ugly creature's if he could use some of the water they were heating, but they had attack him. He shattered there poorly made spears as if they were glass and killed each one in his own unique way.

Frustrated but male again he had hoped to make good time, but the creature's he had run into had friends with some sort of large breed wolf, dealing with them and their pets had taken far longer than anticipated. So after the third skirmish he had finally scaled the mountain and was on his way to where Ranma had preformed that Ki attack. It had taken him two hours to reach the area, and he was extremely winded his head down to catch his breathe. When he looked up his eyes widened at what he saw.

To be Continued...


	3. Chapter 3: A battle Imagine that

**Chapter 3: Across the Veil**

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or settings herein; Forgotten realms and Ranma ½ are the property of their respective owner's and not mine.

"Speech"

/Common/

Other language

'Thoughts'

Chapter 3: Of orc's battle and unpleasant situations.

An hour after her depression blast Ranma had awoken, her head was pounding but otherwise she was fine. 'I'm never gonna use all my Ki in an attack again' she thought to herself. The blast had drained her reserves, knocking her out for a good while, now that she thought about it was not such a good idea. If any of those 'men' well… they weren't' men that was for sure but she wasn't sure what they were.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid, I had to pull an amateur mistake. Now they all will know where I am.' Of course, she was referring to the innumerable number of orc's, not knowing of any potential allies in the close by and only having met the ugly brutes. Seeing some flying thing approaching off in the distance Ranma decided to make a quick exit, hopefully not being spotted by whom or whatever was flying in her direction.

Hiding off to the side Ranma noticed that the flying object in the distance was in-fact a flying horse, with two figures astride upon it. The horse circled for a couple of minutes before heading off in the general direction that it had come. Sighing in relief she was just about to get up when she heard a noise. 'I don't know where I am but it seems to be freak central' thought Ranma as she went back to hiding behind the rock.

Seconds later the infamous dragon prince himself crested the ridge in a quick summersault, after landing he looked around the area, gaping in wonder at the destruction caused by the blast. After a few seconds, he shook his head and began to examine the blast area in earnest. Ranma used this opportunity to sneak off hoping that he would not notice.

0000

Shaking his head Herb silently berated himself, he may have not seen anyone beside himself do a blast this large but it didn't mean that it wasn't possible. In fact, it was very possible; there were a few warriors' that traveled in the wilds in china that could do a blast such as this without breaking a sweat. He hoped to meet some of them at one point or another but he had not had the time to seek them out as of yet.

Sighing he began an earnest inspection of the crater, the fused rock was actually rather surprising, one had to use a lot of Ki in a very small area to do something such as this, the second thing he noticed was the heavy amount of depression Ki that was lingering in the air, this was a very bad thing. Whoever could generate this much depression would be borderline suicidal, this did not bode well for his plans. The Ki defiantly had the same taste as the pig-tailed martial artist; if she started using depression blasts then it would begin a vicious cycle that would only end in the death of herself and hundreds of other people. When he found her he would have to begin her instruction in pure Ki use, although not necessarily more powerful it was far healthier to use.

Shaking his head to clear it of it's errant thought's he began to look in earnest for the pigtailed martial artist, hoping to find her near the blast crater created by her Shi Shi Hokodan. Looking back and forth he was unable to find any sign of her, the hard earth leaving no trace of her passing and although his sense of smell was better than an average human he was no where near his retainer Mint's level when it came to tracking scents. His was more along the lines of being able to tell that she had been here, nothing more. Grunting in frustration he began to extend his Ki sense hoping to find at least some trace of her in the area.

0000

Crouching a few feet away from the dragon prince of the musk Ranma hid behind some rocks, controlling her breathing and deciding on a course of action. At first she contemplated going up and confronting the dragon descendent, but shook her head of that idea, before in top form she had been unable to get the upper hand, now that she was tired and low on Ki she would be unable to even last a few minutes, let alone the thirty or so it would take to defeat him. Deciding for once not to do something rash, she engaged the Saotome Secret Technique; she made a tactical withdrawal.

0000

After twenty minutes of intense concentration Herb cursed himself, he had been unable to find any trace of her. Her aura obviously weakened by the large amount of Ki use more than likely made her damn near undetectable for the next few hours, maybe days depending on the pig-tailed girls natural recovery rate, and on whether she learned any Chi manipulation techniques. Sighing he was about to start the longer more physical search for the red haired martial artist when he sensed a strong focused and brutal Ki signature approaching his location.

0000

A figure exited from the mountain, the almost form fitting black leather armour held tight to it's form, it's face a mask of brutality and cruelty. The figure was much like a classic fantasy orc but the similarities to it's more brutal cousin ended as one would get closer, the figure seemed to have bathed at least once in it's life, it's armour and clothing was far better kept than his more brutal cousins and the light of intellect burned fiercely within his eye's where it was but a dim fire within your standard orc. For he was no standard orc but a mighty scrow, grown from the same stalk, as the orcs the scrow were closer to drow in temperament. There society was based on plotting and political intrigue.

All world upon which the scrow first set foot were unprepared for the sheer number of skilled intelligent 'orc's' that would attack them, most fell quickly and as such the scrow had dominated many a world where there lesser cousins were beaten back repeatedly. The mere fact that scrow had set foot upon the soil of a world usually spelt doom for the other inhabitants. But this was not so for the races of Aber Toril, the scrow that inhabited there plane of existence were but of one tribe among many orcs, there ancestors having been pushed into the depth's of the spine of the world mountains before the fall of the dragons.

So the sight of one scrow would be a surprise to all that knew the orc's but one so highly ranked moving out in the open air would have more than a few of the more prominent ruler's preparing for war. But the dire events of late left little to prepare in that direction, instead most were either retreating from the advancing orc horde, regrouping for an assault or too busy elsewhere to bother with a single scrow.

Azait'or snorted as he finally reached the threshold of the cavern, the burning orb known to the surface races as the sun. The fiery orb burned his eye's and made them water; again he cursed his weakness to the oppressive light. He had been trying to overcome this weakness for the better part of a year, but each time he first came into the light he was unable to see for several minutes. Growling he stood there waiting for his eyes to adjust to the glare of the cursed orb.

Finally, he was able to continue his journey to see this Obould many arrows, said to be the Great One Eye incarnate. Azait'or snorted at that, obviously the fools were duped into thinking such a ludicrous claim, the great orc god wouldn't even focus a small amount of his attention specifically on there small back water plane. His concentration and power's were on other world's where the scrow and orcs were conquering the lands and taking control. Aber Toril in the great scheme of the One eye was a spec of dust to be ignored, in recent history the orcs had finally gained a small amount of his attention, enough for him to give one of his more powerful rituals for use among his followers.

Continuing forward at a steady pace Azait'or was preparing to go into a full out run when he caught sight of a dark all consuming pillar in the corner of his eye, looking in that direction a stunned look came over his face for a few seconds as a dark green sun burst upon one of the mountain tops in the distance. Soon the look faded for a smile of anticipation, and battle lust filled vision.

Changing direction and speed Azait'or headed for the edge of a near-by ravine, when it seemed that in another couple of steps he would fall to his doom, his feet left the ground in a mighty leap the terrible but beautiful scene would stun most onlookers. Coming down upon the opposite side of the crevice his feet impacted with a bone-jarring crunch, scattering stones in all directions. Not even slowed in the least by his brutal landing Azait'or continued running at the same brutal pace repeating his leaps, as he tried to ascend the mountain as quickly as possible.

0000

With narrowed eyes Herb looked upon the form of the man beast in front of him, he was clean compared to the other savages he had faced earlier but he still had the ugly as sin look about him. What was more of note was his strong but wild Ki, as if he had been training to use it. But it was not possible to achieve an aura so large and not have control, this creature in front of him should have burned out long ago.

The brute had arrived a couple of minutes after he had sensed him, no grace was within his movements, he was obviously highly trained but in some form of brutal form of combat that Herb had never seen. While the leaps of a martial artist were usually a beautiful thing to behold this beast's were ugly and forceful, where grace should reside only straightforward brutality did. This 'freak' was an affront to Martial arts; no beauty was contained within his movement's only viciousness.

Herb narrowed his eyes as the figure began to speak. /You their, are you the one that created this blast/ eye's still narrowed Herb concentrated for a second to translate the strange form of English the creature spoke with it's guttural tone. Satisfied that he knew the meaning Herb thought for a second for replying.

/I was not one to create blast, why you wish know/ Herb spoke in a Chinese accent, his English was good but he had not practiced it enough to not sound like an idiot.

/Well then I'll be off, just stay out of my way worm, I'm going to find the originator of this blast and fight him! His head should be a good prize to put onto my mantel, and a sissy such as yourself would just get hurt. / The brute replied, as he began to sniff the air as if to smell out the location of the pig-tailed girl.

There was one thing true about all dragons and creatures related to dragons, they had extreme tempers. One might think that their temper built slowly (which in the case of true dragons it often did) but for the lesser dragon kindred their tempers tended to flare quickly and unmercifully. There were only a few ways to get a dragon to truly lose its temper; one of which was to insult it grievously and the other was to threaten its mate/ perspective mate. No one has ever been foolish enough to attempt to do so to a true dragon but not so for dragon kindred. Now putting all these facts into mind one must think on the grievousness of the insults used, simple one's would get annoyance from the wrym while the truly insulting would cause one to be reduced to there composite atoms in the most painful way possible.

Now dragon prince Herb of the Musk dynasty was not a true dragon, he barley had any true dragon blood in him but he was still related however remotely to a dragon. Add to this the fact that he was not having a good day, he had been mortally insulted (turning into a girl was one of his sore points) and threaten his future mate (even if she didn't know it yet) and you have a brutal concoction that would send a lesser man into a blood thirsty rage that would not be stopped until there was but a bloody smear left of his foe. But Herb of the Musk had learned to control his emotions as part of his training, and to counter the effects of the Hiryu Shoten Ha, so with an iron will he controlled his rage and spoke in an ominously cold voice to the scrow.

"You have gravely insulted me this day creature, and for this you must die" the very air around the dragon prince seemed to pulse with his heart beat, a slight red glow seemed to encompass him like a second skin. He dropped into a fighting stance one that was meant for a fight to the death and waited for his opponent's response.

Azait'or did not understand the words but there meaning was not lost upon him, just looking at the half-elf's (Herb has pointed ear's, and his cat-like pupils would not be obvious unless you were close up) eyes said it all, he had seen much the same look in many a "noble knight's" face before he destroyed them utterly in a duel, but this man that stood before him was not going to be such a pushover. A toothy grin spread across his face as he drew his trusty axe, this would be a worthy challenge not some mindless slaughter.

The two combatants circled each other for what seemed like an eternity, sizing up each other's threat potential and looking for weaknesses in their respective stances. Azait'or was in a crouch with his left arm forward to block incoming attacks and his axe held above and behind his right ear ready to strike fast and deep. Herb on the other hand had switched to an unfamiliar martial stance, his legs spread with both his hands pointed forward like daggers. They circled each other for several minutes seemingly sizing each other up, until at some unknown signal Azait'or charged...

0000

Sleep was the only thing on her mind, oh how she wanted to sleep, that attack had taken almost all the energy she had so here she was almost completely out of energy and making a tactical withdrawal from the area. She couldn't even make the leaps she had earlier to make the journey shorter, her legs felt like molten lead and her lungs were ever so tired. Sleep what a wonderful experience that would be, Ranma continue to try and get to some shelter when the battle on the cratered mountain top above began, she even with her rudimentary Ki sense could feel the power coming off the two combatants, straining her body further to quicken her pace.

0000

The scrow charged directly at the dragon prince, seemingly ignoring the danger he presented, bringing his axe down the cleave the Musk prince in two he was mildly surprised when Herb went for a direct block rather than a counter. His surprise grew further when the Musk prince overpowered him sending him back a few feet.

He quickly overcame his momentary surprise as a feral grin came over his face, finally he would get the challenge he was looking for. Charging at the dragon prince's position again he went in for a few quicker strikes hoping to overwhelm his opponent's speed. He was again surprised when the man in front of him flowed around his strikes in a quite unnatural way, almost Yaun-ti like but not quite. Herb landed several piercing strikes to his hide but they failed to do any more than surface damage, if the Musk prince was surprised he didn't show it.

Again the two broke from each other assessing each other's skill, circling each other once more each took in a better measure of there opponent. Azait'or had the advantage in sure damaging potential, one of his axe strikes, even a glancing hit would be deadly and he also seemed to have an endurance advantage. Herb on the other hand would slowly but surely outclass his opponent in skill as well as power and speed, this normally would have made for quite a short fight, but his opponent had a damage resistance that was supernatural. He had shaken off extremely hard hits as if they were nothing, if Herb could not injure the fool this match would be over quickly.

Sadly while Azait'or had the advantage on a more physical level Herb had one on a mystical sort, while Azait'or had only developed rudimentary Ki control, the ability to enhance his strength, speed and endurance, he had no more advance techniques. Herb on the other hand could shoot quite a few powerful blasts of pure Ki without even tiring thanks in part to his dragon heritage and his high level of training, in short the battle wasn't going to last very long.

Again the two circled evaluating each other threat, preparing for the next possibly final exchange, Herb shifted his stance slightly tightening his guard, as his eyes seemed to show deep concentration. Azait'or knew weather instinctively that the next attack by the Musk prince would be highly devastating so he charged once more hoping to disrupt whatever spell the pink haired freak was going to use on him.

When the scrow was once again upon him Herb suddenly snapped into action again he flowed through Azait'ors attack giving him quite a few punches as before, only the attacks were far faster and stronger than before, only now did the scrow notice his folly as several of his ribs cracked and groaned under the assault of the Musk prince. The dragon descendent had concentrated all of his outer anger aura into his hands making them strike faster and harder than before, each penetrating the scrow's non existent defense and causing quite a bit of damage against his tough hide.

Pulling back from each other the combatants once again eyed each other. Azait'or decided to go for a more defensive approach and wait for the dragon prince's next attack. For some reason this caused said individual to smirk as he stood tall in no stance what so ever, but what was of far more concern to the scrow was the ominous glow now gathering at the end of the Musk's prince's hand. Tensing his legs muscle's in preparation to dodge the magical blast the scrow had just enough time to jump before the blast hit.

Jumping would have been a prudent and intelligent action had this been your classical magical blast such as a fireball, which had very little concussive force but did direct elemental damage, but a Ki blast is far different from a magical blast in more ways than one. While magic tends to be more controlled or have a longer duration Ki was by far more unfocused and as such tended to explode violently and with a lot of force, this tended to make crater's and send things flying from the immediate area such as rocks, grass, and the now jumping scrow.

Snorting at the pathetic creature that would dare insult him, Herb turned to a more important directive; trying and find his future wife. Looking around the area of the crater he found signs of which direction she had moved in with a determined glint in his eye he set off...

End Chapter 3

AN: Chapter 4 and five will be out by the end of spring break (hopefully). Once I complete those two chapters I will be breaking this into one-chapter sections, (except the prologue and chapter 1) And I'm still looking for proofreaders if anyone wants the job e-mail me.


	4. Chapter 4: People of Power

Chapter 4: People of Power and Influence

Ranma climbed the small cliff, the mountains had contained many but not  
one was close enough to the path or had such a cave near them. This one  
had both, which was all right in her book especially since she could  
barley lift herself up to the next handhold. If she hadn't drained her  
reserves she would have been able to quickly scale such a short cliff.  
As she was now it took her close to ten minutes before she reached the  
top, breathing hard and sweating, her stomach yearning to be filled.  
Normally food came before anything in the mind of Ranma Saotome, but  
after releasing so much energy the only thing she could think of was  
getting some sleep. Ranma squirmed into the tight opening of the cave  
and sighed relieved that it was empty. Sitting close to one corner of  
the wall Ranma slowly drifted to sleep, spending one more night on the  
mountain of this strange world. 

0000

Herb did not have to travel very far to find the tracks that the other  
martial artist had left, almost on the other side of the peak from where  
his earlier opponent entered. He was by no means a tracker, he left  
those skills to his retainers and focused on more martial pursuits but  
he had learned to follow simple paths left behind by animal and men.  
While Ranma had an exceptionally light step because of her martial arts  
training she made no move to hide her tracks. This made it exceptionally  
easy for even an unskilled tracker such as Herb to find them on the  
gravel filled ground.

The real problem tracking came when he reached the harder rock further  
on into the mountains, the hard surface allowed little or no tracks to  
be left upon it, making his rudimentary tracking skills almost useless.  
Looking around for any sign of the red-haired girl he had almost given  
up hope when he noticed a flash of bright red cloth in the distance.  
Heading off in that direction he was just close enough to notice the  
figure with the cloth slip into what appeared to be a small cave.

Quickly picking up pace he reached the bottom of the small cliff within  
a couple of minutes, leaping up onto the cliff edge he examined the  
entrance to the cave closely, seeing that there would be no way he could  
fit within without getting stuck he decided to wait a few feet above for  
the pig-tailed girl to emerge.

0000

Several orc's slowly crept up to the settling pile of debris, something  
had been launched off one of the nearby mountains and they were ordered  
(read bullied) to find out what it was by their comrades. When they  
finally reached the impact zonethey were surprised to see the intact body  
of a fellow orc lying on the ground, had they been any more observant  
they might have noticed the slight but profound differences between this  
fellow and your normal orc but, well orc's are rather lacking in the  
brain department...

The largest of the group (and obvious leader) approached the corpse (no  
one could have survived that fall short of Obould himself) he would have  
first dibs on the loot and the other's would get what was left over. Therefore he  
was quite a surprise when the figurecame to life, even more surprise registeredinto his brain before his neck was snapped like a twig.

Looking over the group of orc's the battered and beaten Scrow scowled.  
With a few quick short commands he was being escorted to the main camp  
for his audience with the great Obould. His thoughts a million miles  
away, seeing the glorious battle of a few moments ago, finally a worthy  
opponent, he would need more training. The grin the split across his  
face made many of the orc's quicken their pace in sheer fright.

0000

Waiting above a cave entrance was not something that Herb found very  
entertaining, least of all doing so for a couple of hours. It was  
obvious that the red-haired girl was not going to emerge any time soon.  
Frowning deep in thought, he did not move for a few minutes, when he  
finally did he moved off to the north, in search of something.

0000

An outlandishly dressed wizard looked on the scenes of recent combat in  
the northwest. His smoking pipe and classic pointed hat, along with his  
mostly red colour scheme donated his position as the magister,  
Elminster. He had been watching events in the spine of the world  
mountain in his spare time for quite awhile now, wondering if he should  
'help'. Elminster, although powerful, never helped directly, he usually  
worked through agents and so was the case now, he had been moving events  
along in the north to a more favorable end. A little push here and there  
was all that was needed to get some people into the right place at the  
right time. Using his scrying bowl (and any other implement of scrying  
he had on hand at the moment.) he watched the events unfold and made  
sure those certain agents of his arrived in place on time.

Oh sure most of them didn't know that he was guiding them from afar but  
all their choices had been their own, he just sped things up a little.  
For the past few days he hadn't had a chance to guide any of his  
northern charges, most of them were already in opportune positions as it  
was, requiring no further guidance for quite awhile. What was his  
attention focused on? Well a day or two prior he had sensed a huge  
expenditure of magic, something in the Underdark below the Spine of the  
World had used a very powerful summoning spell to yank a powerful  
outsider out of its home plane and bind it to their control.

Normally such spells do not cause such a disturbance, but this  
particular one reached further than was previously thought possible. It  
had broken the Universal vale, a phenomena that would not allow for  
travel into distinctly different realities. Whoever the summoner was  
either far beyond even him or had failed his/her original spell so  
horribly that he was now dead. The summoning spell was obviously for  
something extremely powerful, but curiously had only gotten some slip of  
a girl barely entering adulthood and some other girl around the same  
age, well the second one was obviously under some sort of curse as she  
had changed genders with the application of hot water.

Both of the travelers had a strange magical aura around them that smelt  
of lower plane magic and enchantment, which must have been what the  
spell latched onto. What was really strange was that the magic also had  
a divine taste to it, whoever or whatever had done this to them was  
obviously some sort of demon god.

On the smaller traveler the magic seemed to fading, bleeding off into  
the surrounding weave. The one around the magical aura around the  
currently male traveler did not seem to be getting weaker, which was  
strange seeing as it was of the same spell as the one on the red-haired  
girl. This was very curious indeed, he would have to investigate further  
into what these spells did.

When he had first detected the magic that sent them here, he had watched  
to see whom their mysterious summoner was, but seeing as he never did  
appear his fears were set to rest. No powerful force had decided that it  
was now it's time to rule/set things right. The latter would have been  
welcome but for one small problem, the realms have had more than enough  
upheaval for one generation, they did not need another self-righteous  
crusade.

His fears at rest, Elminster continued to watch the duo whenever he had  
a spare moment, wondering on why such a powerful spell would choose  
these two. They didn't look like much, each was obviously a monk of some  
skill but they had done nothing of significance. His entire view of the  
two changed when the red haired one was practicing on the top of the  
mountain. She had incredible skill, such grace would be hard to find  
among elven kind let alone humans. If the spell was looking for pure  
skill then the reason was obvious, but such a spell did no such thing.  
They looked for powerful individuals, well demons and monsters really,  
beings of such power that they made even the bravest of wizards quiver  
in fear, and kingdoms to bow before them. So the summoning of these two  
should not have been possible, his opinion stayed firm until the  
red-haired monk stopped her practice, and began to glow a sickly green.  
There was obviously no magic being bled off of her but she was glowing  
all the same.

He grew slightly worried when a band of orc's approached her seemingly  
without her notice, but when the glow around her intensified, and the  
creatures stood completely transfixed by the sight. He found himself  
staring in fascination as the dark green glow continued to build, he  
could do nothing else until a dark green almost black pillar broke into  
the sky. The srcying pool he was using at the moment had all of it's  
water suddenly turn to steam burning his face slightly before he moved  
back. When he finally cleared his vision he was surprised to find dark  
green lightning coursing along the sides of the bowl. Surprised at the  
reaction of his bowl, he set off to his library; he had some research to  
do.

0000

It had taken several hours but he had done it, he had carefully gathered  
all the components for his creation. All it required was a small bit of  
energy to set it in motion. Channeling his power into the palm of his  
hand he grasped one of the implements, heating it to the burning point  
and with a sudden whoosh the pile of wood began to catch fire. With a  
satisfied smirk Herb began to prepare the meat he had caught. Bear  
always made a good meal, especially when cooked over an open fire.

Stripping off the hide and fur took far longer than he would of wanted  
but without the proper tools that is to be expected, he had a single  
knife, but it was more of a ceremonial blade, making it nearly useless  
for cutting off the leathery hide of the bear. By the time he had  
finished cleaning the carcass to an acceptable level, the sun was  
drooping in the western sky. Shrugging he began to remove the meat from  
the body and place it on nice thick branches so they would roast  
properly.

It was about an hour later when he had started on his second piece of  
stringy bear flesh when a figure dropped from the darkness near the  
fire. Quickly getting into a ready stance he prepared to defend his meal  
against the unwanted intruder. When he finally noticed who it was, he  
changed into a defensive stance but did not drop his guard.

The figure looked at him with narrowed eyes, each stormy blue orb seemed  
to bore into him, as if the figure to see straight through him. "What  
are YOU doing here?" the figure spoke, the flames making her red-hair  
seem darker and almost demonic. The short red haired martial artist  
known to many as Saotome Ranma had come to confront him.

0000

A few minutes earlier

Ranma awoke to the world with a start, the sweat from some unknown  
nightmare fresh on her face. What was more concerning to her at the  
moment however was the great amount of thirst she had and the horrible  
emptiness in her belly. She had not eaten in a couple of days and it was  
starting to get to her. Worse is the timing of this little escapade, her  
period would begin tonight, along with her ravenous hunger, made her  
rather cranky. What was worse is that she could smell good food nearby,  
well maybe not that good but it was obviously not one of Akane's  
concoctions and well she was so damn hunger she could have eaten even  
her toxic waste.

Deciding to visit the owner of said food was the first and only thought  
in her head. Exiting the cave she was surprised to find a fire of all  
things not ten feet from the cliff she was currently at, not questioning  
her luck, or if it was a friend she made a leap towards the fire, with a  
perfect landing she stood up to inspect her soon to be benefactor. Who  
she found brought a scowl to her face, it was Herb the bastard who had  
locked her into her cursed form. snarling she was prepared to attack  
him, when her ravenous hunger again asserted itself in her mind. So  
instead she went for a more diplomatic approach, "What are YOU doing  
here?" well as diplomatic as one Ranma Saotome can be...

0000

Sitting there stunned at the sheer venom and bluntness of the question  
for a few moment. Final snapping out of his stupor Herb replied in a way  
you would expect someone to reply to such a question, "Eating food, want  
some?" or not. Hopefully by not responding to her bait he could gain at  
least some of her trust.

Earlier aggression gone, Ranma stood there dumbfounded by the Musk  
prince's response. She had expected a challenge or a death threat but  
not this. Nodding still stunned by his response, she grabbed one of the  
meat sticks and began to daintily (see; eating like a rabid wolverine)  
consume the food. It was almost a full minute before she regained her  
mental faculties and started 'interrogating' the prince.

"Where the hell are we? why did you take me here and, what have you done  
with the open water KETTLE?" starting low Ranma's voice raised to an  
almost shriek.

Herb audibly blinked for a couple of seconds before breaking out in  
laughter, much to the annoyance of Ranma who was about to show her  
displeasure at being laughed at before he stopped, pounding his chest a  
few times and catching his breath he finally spoke, "I don't even know  
where we are, so how do you presume to blame this on me?" Herb replied  
getting annoyed.

Getting to her feet Ranma glared at the dragon prince, "How do I blame  
you? WHO was the one that locked me into my cursed out of spite? Who  
refused to allow me to use the open water kettle to unlock my curse? The  
answer to all these questions is YOU!" Her snarling visage was made to  
look almost demonic by the light of the fire, the flames dancing within  
her eyes, as if showing the anger she held within herself.

Before Herb could reply in kind she stalked out of the fire light with  
an angry gait. She didn't look back upon the camp.

0000

In a dark musty room that stood a few feet below the ground an old crone  
stood over a black cauldron, bubbling with some black viscous substance  
that was not easily definable. She muttered words in a language that was  
known to few, and spoken by fewer. With a fevered pitch the incantation  
came to an end. The room grew quite, the few candles on the walls seemed  
to dim as a pillar of purplish black power erupted out of the  
concoction.

The effect seemed to continue for several minuets before finally  
settling down. The black liquid that resided within the cauldron wavered  
and formed an image. The familiar visage of a red pig-tailed girl  
arguing with a self proclaimed Dragon prince. Cackling the crone woke  
the other two residents that slept on the upper floor of the residence,  
each with a cold sweat and a shiver down their spines.

0000

Using skills that had grown rusty since her stay in Nerima Ranma  
silently slipped away from the dragon prince and his camp. This was  
extremely difficult for the first few minutes until the image of the  
fire and its brightness faded from her vision and her eyes adjusted to  
the dark.

She had to find shelter for the night, as far away from Herb as  
possible. The small cave she had hidden in earlier was too close for  
comfort to the Musk prince and his camp fire. So she had to find some  
other place to rest. The only problem she had with her current plan of  
action was the darkness. Oh she could see in the night very well for a  
human, which means she could see maybe a few hundred meters when the  
moon was full. Problem was, the moon was only a small crescent in the  
sky, leaving very little light to see by.

A few minutes of walking also revealed a second problem, it was cold,  
really really COLD! If her Ki reserves were at full, or she had any  
significant amount of bio-energy left this would not be a problem. Sadly  
even after eating and resting for a few hour's her reserves were almost  
nil, she needed a full nights rest and a good meal before she could  
recover her inner energy.She had had neither for quite some time.

Looking mournfully back at the flaming glow in the distance she debated  
internally whether to head back to the camp, the warmth of the fire and  
food singing a siren's call through her mind. Sighing at the unfairness  
of it all she continued walking.

0000

Not far off from the position of the red-haired martial artist, a being  
at home in the shadows slipped silently across the ground. Only the most  
trained would notice the soft patter of feet or the slight whipping  
sound made by the figure's quick efficient movements. The figure's  
piercing violet eyes were the only distinguishing feature that could be  
noted from within in its cloak. Night provided excellent cover for one  
of his birth, and he had long ago learned to exploit it to its fullest.

One did not walk any city of the under dark without learning to meld  
into the shadows with some skill and the figure was arguably one of the  
best of his kin at hiding in the shadows. That however was not what made  
him infamous within the circles of his race, no what drew the attention  
of so many was his skill with his chosen blade, the scimitar. His skills  
with other weapons were quite deadly but when the hilt of a scimitar  
touched his hand they became one with him body and soul. The amount of  
control he exhibited with his chosen blade was matched by so very few,  
the amount one could count easily on one hand. But this is not what made  
him famous among the surface dwelling races no. The reason for his fame  
was the race of his birth, Drow, dark elves, bent on the destruction and  
slaving of all other races.

What makes him so special among his dark kin, well this 'dark elf' was  
only dark in skin colour, not heart or mind. He had long ago broken away  
from his darker kin, refusing to partake in their basic culture and  
finally achieving what was once thought impossible, escaping the matron  
mother's of the great city Menzoberranzan. He was still hunted by the  
leaders of his home city, but not as fanatically as he once was, they  
had lost far too many to his twin blades to actively send their minions  
to hunt him. They offered a large reward for his death however which  
attracted some to take his head and present it to the leaders of the  
dark city he once called home. Those attacks had gotten rare over the  
past ten years, the bounty hunters and cutthroats that would have taken  
it were either dead or had heard of his legendary skills in battle.

This Drow however did not allow this to go to his head, he had seen many  
a person, be they Drow human or dwarf taken out because of their  
overestimating their own skill. Currently the male Drow was following a  
human women, well girl really from the look of it. For the past couple  
of days strange things had been happening in the area, large pillars of  
green almost black light, and orc's that were far too powerful and  
intelligent had begun appearing. The spine of the world mountain already  
had enough problems with the stupid creatures, if the trend continued  
there was a good chance that that descriptor would not apply any more.  
If that where to happen then the orcs would be able to conquer all of  
the northern land, and later the better part of Faerun.

This was the reason he was following this girl, trouble seemed to be  
attracted to her, several of the events of the past few days could be  
traced almost exclusively to her. She was a mystery to be solved, and he  
planned to do so before she got herself killed.

At this distance he could not make out much about this human girl, her  
mannerisms and clothing was completely different than anything he had  
seen. Normally he would be far closer but every time he would attempt to  
do so, the girl's muscles would tighten ever so slightly as if she knew  
he was there. This was doubly strange as the only people he had seen do  
that were the monks that every so often left their hidden monasteries,  
but this girl did not dress or act like one of their number so this was  
curious indeed.

What was more puzzling was her gait, it was fluid like that of a highly  
trained warrior, but it had a very feline quality to it, as if she was a  
cat on the prowl. She even had many of the unconscious mannerisms of a  
cat, such as the twitching of her ears when she seemed to hear a sound.  
The mystery of this red haired stranger was getting deeper.

The only problem he had now was how to approach her, he had spent  
several hours thinking and talking with his only other companion of  
late, and had decided to contact this strange red haired girl, if she  
was hostile than he would have to 'deal' with her sooner rather than  
later, if she was not hopefully he could get some information out of  
her.

Deciding that now was as good a time as any he began to approach her,  
knowing full well that she could detect his presence even if he did not  
know how...

To be continued...

0000

AN: I will be posting approximately one chapter per month possibly faster, but I wouldn't count on it.

Any and all reviews are welcome; flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

And thanks to **Questara **for proof reading, and correcting some of my grammatical mistakes.


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